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Salaries of chiefs to be posted online

REGINA - People will soon be able to look up the salaries for First Nations chiefs online.

Tuesday was the deadline for First Nations to submit their financial statements to the federal government.

The salaries of chiefs and councillors will be posted on the federal government website over the next few weeks.

The change comes after Ottawa enacted new legislation that allows the government to post the financials publicly.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been pushing for the salaries to be made public since 2009.

Colin Craig, prairie director of the CTF, says people were frustrated by the money being spent on reserves and then not being disclosed.

So far, White Bear First Nation and Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation are the only two Saskatchewan reserves that have their financial records posted.

“Certainly we would have liked to see this happen years and years ago but we’re glad that when we started the push to get this information online that we found a fairly receptive audience in Ottawa,” says Craig.